With many thanks to a friend up on the Erie Canal, it’s ex-Bear, journeying toward the west as Elizabeth Anna. I suspect she might head for Lockport, rather than Oswego, so maybe someone will confirm they’ve seen her after turning to starboard or port at Three Rivers. Here some years ago was part of the rest of her fleet.

She seems small by current sixth boro standards, but not here. Anyone know the location? Answer follows.

Thanks to Mark “woodywud” Woods, here’s Colonel, not a common sight up river, although that could change.

And finally, some pics I took . . . James E. Brown last week moving railcars on barge 278 between NJ and Brooklyn, NYNJR. Here’s a 2012 article.

So the top two photos were taken at Sylvan Beach NY, east end of Oneida Lake, a popular stopping point along the Erie Canal. Thanks to Jim and Mark for sending these photos. The Brown photos are by me, Will Van Dorp.

“Really random” posts tend to be far-flung, so let’s start out with this photo by Jed, who has contributed many photos recently. Then there’s JED, who has contributed photos starting from 2008. The boat dates from 1975.

From Jan Oosterboer via Fred Trooster, here’s the 1955 tug Argus along with

Sirius (1966). It appears that Sirius–like Orion and Brendan Turecamo–also has a wheelhouse that can be raised.

For the scale of the “tow” here, scroll down and

behold–Thialf, with a combined lifting capacity of over 14,000 tons!! Click here to see the view down from Thialf’s deck AND be sure to read the comments that follow. Here are a few other heavy-lifters including Saipem 7000.

Heading back to NYC but as the South Street Seaport Museum area of the sixth boro of NYC looked in 1985, from a secret salt, it’s the 1939 USCGC WYT-93, Raritan! The two vessels around her are, of course 1885 schooner Pioneer and 1908 lightship Ambrose. Click here for a list of specifics and missions on Raritan, but one of her operations was against M/V Sarah of Radio NewYork International. M/V Sarah was eventually blown up for a movie stunt.

And rounding this post out . . . from Elizabeth, in Alameda, it’s the 1943 YT-181 Mazapeta.

Here was 2. Scroll through and you’ll see other posts I’ve done on the vessel in North America. The photo below shows Half Moon under full sail off Boston earlier this month.

Here on an AIS grab from yesterday, BigLift MV Traveller scooted across the North Sea from Scotland into the port at the mouth of the IJ River.

If you scan the icons carefully here, you’ll see MV Traveller in port, near NG 10-Aqua Fauna.

And here she is at the dock. Click on the photo to get the original source and discussion in Dutch. The headline translates as Half Moon has arrived in IJmuiden, the port at the mouth of the IJ River. Click here and here for more photos. I’ll translate the text later today when my head comes back above water.

Click here and here for photos I took of tugs and other vessels on the IJ and other waterways in the Netherlands last year. Here are some of my other IJmuiden and area photos.

Many thanks to Rene at binnenvaart for these arrival links. The next and final step will be from IJmuiden to Hoorn.

Thanks to Mike Abegg for the photo of Half Moon under sail in North American waters less than a month ago.

The first two and last two photos here come thanks to John Jedrlinic . .. aka Jed. He took these of Marlin in Baltimore in late July 2009.

Has anyone heard of/seen it since it was sold foreign?

The next batch were taken in the Beerkanaal area seaward of Rotterdam in early March (I think) by Jan Oosterboer and sent via Rene Keuvelaar and Fred Trooster. I’ll just list the names and embed more info: Iskes Brent,

I was about to put up a different post–that’ll be for tomorrow–when Jonathan Steinman sent along these photos. As I post this, tug Challenger is eastbound on the East River, approaching Hell Gate. The question on Jonathan’s mind, as well as mine and maybe yours . . . what is that assemblage balanced on the barge?

This photo of Doris Joan Moran that has been circulating on FB this morning. Sorry . . . I wish I knew who gets the credit for this unusual shot. Anyhow, it reminded me of a post I did five years ago here.

Here’s a Doris photo I took last week . . . uncoated.

So one reaction to the cold is to bundle up, grit your teeth, plod on, complain a little more . . .

But you have to admit, winter in the northern latitudes gives us new senses of hulls on snow bases, or

levitating above it.

Here’s roughly the same angle . . . as I took it in September 2012.

Thanks to Bob Stopper for the photo of tug Syracuse and to Erich Amberger for the winter photo of Wendy B. The others I took, except for the top photo, and I’d still like to know who took that.

Uh . . . I just mis-read the FB info on the frosted over tugboat above. It was spelled j-o-a-n, and I transferred that as d-o-r-i-s. I’m sloppy sometimes. Maybe I need an editor.

Take a European canal/river barge . . . . This one was built in 1963 in Moerbeke, Belgium, by Marinus Faasse. He named it Leja, the portmanteau word for his parents’ names, Lena and Jacob.

Here’s part of the text of an email I received today from Maja Faasse: “Leja was the second motor barge my parents have built. It is named after our grandparents, Lena and Jacob. Our father, Marinus … knows every detail. For about 40 years he made his living on Leja, as did our mother for 34 years after they married. My sisters Leona, Jaccoline, and I were born and raised on the Leja, and have very good memories and had a very nice childhood on the water. Every vacation from boarding school and most weekends we spent on board. The summer vacations where the best times, 6 weeks of playing and swimming. Our parents had to sell the barge because our mother needed a pair of new knees and recovery wasn’t possible on board, so they had stopped their business with pain in their heart, and sold it to an owner in France, who renamed it Sojo.”

We were planning a trip to France this spring to go find the barge . . . and go look for it. So we contacted the broker for information where the Sojo could be at that time and wanted to see what is still original and what is new. But . . .

then the broker told us that the owner had renamed it Sojourn and moved it from France to the USA. Later on we also found a picture on the Erie Canal taken in May 2013.

Our father just turned 78 years and his biggest wish is to still visit the Sojourn.”

The photos below were taken in October 2014 by Bob Stopper. They show her being moved by Benjamin Elliot toward her current location in the Lyons.

Stories like Maja’s move me, and I certainly hope Marinus Faasse gets to visit with his half-century-plus-years creation soon in Lyons, where snow likely covers it.

Click here and here for photos of some other Dutch barges in the northeastern parts of the US. There may be more, and if so, I’d love to learn about them. For some motor barges that traveled from west-to-east on the Atlantic, click here for a post I did four years ago.

Many thanks to Maja Faasse for writing. Also, to Bob Stopper who sent the three photos of Sojourn back last fall. Also, a tip of the hat to Lewis Carroll for coining the portmanteau portmanteau.

Photos from Italy, Florida, and Trinidad, resp. The first photo comes thanks to Rod Clingman . . .tug Lourdes C towing Costa (not Concordia) Fasonosa. The second photo, thaks to Ashley Hutto, shows Florida Institute of Oceanography’s Weatherbird II–said to be first research vessel to reach Deepwater Horizon post-blowout. The photo and the rest from S/V Maraki and my sister in Port-of-Spain.

Thanks to Bob Stopper, these photos show NYS Marine Highway’s Benjamin Elliot moving French canal barge Sojourn into the Lyons drydock area. Sojourn has quite the history that I hope to be telling more about soon.